this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Firefox

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Why can't the devs have it update in the background or on next startup? I was in the middle of my work when I got this. Now I need to close everything and go through all the logins and 2FA again. ๐Ÿ˜ก

Chrome is much better at this, hands down. It has never interrupted me the way Firefox does during updates.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah, caught out the first.time. Now I never OK the update until I am about to close.down, which is a bulahit workaround but there it is. Why can't it be downloaded with a pop uo notification saying install the update now or wait until you reboot?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

For anyone who is still confused about what causes this: Firefox launches copies of itself when creating new website instances (usually when loading a website that has not already been loaded). Because of this, if it is updated in the background (through any means; I usually see this after a manual system update), Firefox has to restart when you try and load a new site because it cannot create any compatible copies of itself, since the old version is the one that is still running and the copies would use the new (updated) version.

The solution is to only update when Firefox is closed, or restart it when it asks.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

IME it happens when I open a new tab.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Yep; sometimes I will be able to do a search and then when I try to click on a result it has me restart.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've been using Firefox since 1.0PR and I've never seen this message before. For me, Firefox has always quietly downloaded the update in the background and then installed it the next time I used it.

I'm curious to know just exactly what it is you're doing to make this message come up.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I saw this yesterday on Linux after a typical update command and it surprised me. Restarting FF reopened all my tabs without issue and it wasn't really an inconvenience to me.

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

Better safe than sorry.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you don't want this you can change things.

When you first install Firefox, uncheck install updates as a service. Personally, I don't like applications running services in the background all the time. When I close something I expect it to be gone, and I don't want it running until I tell it to.

Second, go into settings and change your update settings to "Check for updates but let you choose to install them". Firefox will pop up with a discrete notification telling you when an update is available, asking you to download, then another dismissable notification telling you to restart to update.

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

Stupid people don't read anything when they install, then they complain they didn't ask for this...

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I use it on both Windows and Mac, Iโ€™ve never seen this o.o

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've seen it multiple times over the years. Don't know what could be causing this.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

In my experience - having 2 different instances (e.g. if you want 2 icons on the taskbar) and one having updated.